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1. Choosing a domain name
2. Choosing the appropriate TLD

While creating a website for your business, choosing the right domain name carries is very important. An unrelated domain name may obscure the whole reason behind creating a website.

Some of the factors one must consider before choosing a domain name are down below:

1. The domain name must be similar to your Brand Name:

The reason why you must match your Domain name with your Brand Name:

• If your domain doesn’t match your Brand Name, then it would be an act of bad branding
• If you use the name of your Brand for the website’s domain name, then it would be much easier for your audience to find your site. For example, if your brand name is “XYZ” and your Domain Name is “ABC,” your audience would find it difficult to remember or find your official website on the Internet.
• Be consistent in your approach. With consistency, you can grow your brand to be active and memorable.

2. Choose the perfect Brand name:

Quality of a good brand name:

•    It must be UNIQUE
•    It should be CLEAR to understand
•    The brand name should be SHORT
•    It should be MEANINGFUL
•    It should sound CATCHY

Before choosing a Brand Name, think about:

•    The pronunciation of your Brand Name
•    Does it look good when you write it down on paper?
•    Is the brand name relatable to your product or service line?

3. Do a Google Search of your Brand and analyze the Results

To know the different types of ranking for your chosen brand name, you must Google Search it. The Internet is full of competition and to compete with the powerful domains on the Internet, you might have to face struggle while ranking your name. It is recommended that you pick some unique and easy to rank for name.

Use the “Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool” from Google Adwords to see what position your brand holds in different countries. You can use different versions of Google to find this.

4. Your Brand must be easy to read and write

This point needs the least explanation. To capture a global audience, your brand name should consist of words which can be written and pronounced by everyone. For example. Apple, a brand that even a child can pronounce and write.

5. Don’t focus much on Keywords but domain name instead

A creative and good brand name is way better than a domain which is keyword-heavy. However, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to consider it at all. If a keyword fits perfectly with a creative domain name, then go for it.

For example, if you are building a website related to Street Food of Vietnam, then you might go for a domain name such as vietnamdelicacies.com over vietnamstreetfood.com.

In this way, you can include the Keyword “ Vietnam,” while eliminating any chance for spam-filled SEO.

Low quality “Exact Match Domain” or EDM is also an issue. Google algorithm ensures that a spam related low-quality domain name should not carry the same level of rank as a genuine website. While Google is doing its best to eliminate all EDM with poor quality ranking, but still you will find a lot of Spammy EDM. Hope in future; Google will manage to eliminate all EDM.

6. No Hyphens

Using hyphens in your domain name sounds quite low quality and downright uncomfortable. Some even find it spammy. Moreover, whenever, you have to pronounce your domain name  with a hyphen to someone, you have to say “Vietnam, hyphen, delicacies dot com.”

While some worlds’ biggest brands of the world use hyphens in their domain name, but they are already established and pay a reasonable amount for marketing. If you are a small or medium company and want to spread your brand awareness, then go for simple yet elegant name.

7. Try to Optimize your domain without looking like spam

Before, you have been told that an original domain name should be your priority. However, it doesn’t mean that you cannot use optimization process in your domain name. The key is to be subtle and refrain from looking spammy. If you are a restaurant owner in Vietnam and sell Vietnam food, then you can use the keyword “Vietnam,” and it does make sense. Besides, if you use Vietnamdelicacies.com, it sounds more brand worthy than Vietnam-street-food.com or vietnamstreetfood.com.

Now, it depends upon business to business, whether one can use SEO and original domain name at the same time or not. It’s better if you can use both, but don’t stress over it too much if you can’t.

8. Keep it Short and Simple

Short, sweet and simple is the key for a catchy domain name. A small domain name will be great for you in several ways. A short domain name will help a person to remember the domain name with ease.

While designing your webpage, if your root domain will be short, for example, abc.com, then all your URL Structure and subpage architecture will be easy and short.

9. Choosing the appropriate TLD

TLD or Top Level Domain is that part which is associated with your domain name.

Some common TLDs includes:

•  .com
•  .org
•   .net
•    .co
•    .us

Apart from the above TLDs, you will get a wide range of TLDs for your domain. Laden with so many choices, it is often confusing for a business to choose the right TLD.

To choose the best TLD, follow this rule:

Is your business available for the whole world or do you plan to expand your business globally in the future? If your answer is yes, then choose “.com.”

If your answer is NO and your business is limited to your domestic country only, then choose your TLD according to your country. For example, if you are from the UK, then you can use “.co.uk.”

Using keywords as your TLD is something you should blatantly avoid. For example, if you sell cheese and you use “.cheese” as your TLD, then Google will not pay any priority.

Almost everyone’s first guess about a domain TLD is “.com,” and the same applies to email addresses too.

Also using a global based TLD or country based TLD will be more trustworthy to a potential customer than using a TLD such as “cheese.” No one will be eager to click on a link that ends with “.cheese.”

However, exceptions are always there. If your business involves in IT or Internet sector, then using a TLD such as “.net” would be great. If you are a non-profit organization, then you should choose a TLD with “.org.”

10. How Unique is your domain?

Before opting for a domain name, first, check whether anyone else is using the domain name or not. Sometimes, you will find that someone might be using your desired domain name, but with a different TLD. Usually, it is advisable to use a domain name, which sounds unique and not a copy from someone else.

The best way is to buy as much TLDs as you can for your domain name. For example, if your domain name is “ABC”, then you should also buy TLDs such as “.com, .co.uk, .net, .org, etc. It will keep other people from getting hold of your domain name. Besides, you can use the extra domain visitors to redirect to your primary domain.

11. Are social handles with your domain name available?

Building a social media platform as per as your domain names are quite crucial for Brand Awareness and Promotion. Therefore, before going for a domain name, find out if some else has taken it on social media platform. It’s better to create your social media pages related to your domain, even if you don’t intend to use them. In this way, you can keep others to use them.

12. Check for Trademarks

Before buying your desired domain, you should also check if the name is already trademarked or not. In this way, you will not have to face any copyright issues in future.

Check also this data science tools.

Summary

Nowadays, everyone is getting internet savvy and building their websites. With such tremendous growth in demand, availability of domain name is getting shorter. Therefore, while creating a domain name, you have to be creative and think out of the box.

 

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